chapter 3
979 Words
The Boy Who Heard the Wind
The clouds arrived quietly.
Not with thunder.
Not with lightning.
It's just a slow gathering of darkness along the edge of the sky.
By morning, the villagers of Aderin had begun whispering about it. Farmers paused in their fields, staring at the strange grey line stretching across the horizon.
“It’s too early for heavy rain,” one of them said.
“Maybe the harmattan winds are shifting,” another replied.
But Iyara knew better.
She stood at the edge of the village square, watching the clouds carefully.
They weren’t moving the way clouds normally moved.
They were growing.
And the wind felt restless.
It brushed against her shoulders again and again like someone trying to get her attention.
She closed her eyes.
“What is it?” she whispered.
For a moment, the wind softened.
Then it carried a faint sound.
Not words.
A voice.
Not hers.
Not the wind’s.
Someone else.
Iyara’s eyes snapped open.
“Who was that?”
The wind swirled around her feet and drifted toward the narrow street leading behind the marketplace.
She hesitated.
“Are you showing me something?”
The breeze moved again—this time stronger.
It pushed gently against her back.
Iyara took a step forward.
Then another.
Soon, she was walking through the winding paths behind the village shops. The smell of roasted corn and fried akara faded behind her as the houses became smaller and quieter.
The wind kept guiding her.
Left.
Right.
Past a wooden fence.
Until she reached a small open field where children often played in the evenings.
But now the field was empty.
Except for one boy.
He sat on a large rock near the centre of the field, staring up at the sky.
Iyara stopped walking.
The wind circled him softly.
The same way it circled her.
Her heart skipped.
No way…
The boy suddenly spoke.
“You hear them too, don’t you?”
Iyara froze.
Slowly, he turned his head toward her.
He looked about fourteen years old, with dark curly hair and curious eyes that held a strange calmness.
“You’ve been following the wind all morning,” he said.
Her voice came out carefully.
“How did you know that?”
The boy shrugged.
“Because the wind told me you were coming.”
Iyara felt a shiver run down her spine.
“You…he hear it?”
“Sometimes,” he replied.
The wind lifted the edge of his shirt as if agreeing.
Iyara stepped closer.
“What’s your name?”
“Tade.”
He studied her face.
“You’re the girl from the hill.”
Her eyes widened.
“You saw me?”
“No,” he said.
“The wind showed me.”
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
The breeze moved gently through the tall grass around them.
Finally, Iyara asked the question forming in her mind.
“How long have you been hearing it?”
Tade scratched the back of his neck.
“A few years, I guess.”
“What does it say?”
“Mostly small things,” he said.
“Like when rain is coming… or when someone nearby is sad.”
Iyara frowned.
“Does it ever warn you about danger?”
Tade’s expression changed.
Slowly, he nodded.
“Last night.”
The wind suddenly grew colder.
Iyara felt it immediately.
“What did it say?”
Tade looked toward the dark horizon.
His voice lowered.
“It said the storm is hungry.”
A rumble echoed faintly in the distance.
Iyara crossed her arms, trying to steady herself.
“So you know about the storm.”
“A little,” he said.
“The wind doesn’t tell me everything.”
“Same here,” Iyara admitted.
Tade glanced at her again.
“But it talks to you more than it talks to me.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because the wind listens when you speak.”
Iyara looked down at the grass.
That part was true.
Even she didn’t fully understand why.
The breeze brushed past them again.
This time, it carried another whisper.
A warning.
Both of them heard it at the same moment.
They looked at each other.
“The traveler…” Tade said slowly.
Iyara’s heart skipped.
“You heard that too?”
He nodded.
“The wind says he’s walking again.”
Iyara felt the air grow heavy.
The traveller.
The man who summoned the storm centuries ago.
“If he’s alive…” she began.
Tade shook his head.
“I don’t think he ever really died.”
The wind suddenly rushed through the field with sharp urgency.
It pushed against Iyara’s back.
Then toward the village.
Then, back toward the horizon.
I'm trying to say something quickly.
Tade stood up.
“Something’s wrong.”
Iyara turned toward the dark clouds again.
They had grown larger.
Much larger.
Too large.
And now they were moving.
Not drifting.
Advancing.
A deep rumble shook the sky.
The wind screamed suddenly.
Not like a whisper.
Like a warning.
Then they both heard it.
A distant laugh.
Low.
Cold.
And carried through the wind itself.
Iyara’s blood ran cold.
“That’s him,” she whispered.
Tade’s face had gone pale.
“Yeah,” he said quietly.
“The traveller has found us.”
Another rumble of thunder rolled across the valley.The storm was closer now.
And somewhere within its dark heart, something ancient had awakened.
Something that had been waiting centuries to finish what it started.
Iyara clenched her fists.
“We have to stop him.”
Tade looked at the growing storm.
Then at her.
His voice was steady now.
“Then the wind better teach us how.”
Because far above them, the clouds twisted unnaturally.
And hidden deep within the storm…
Someone was already watching them.
- Writer
